Of Human Condition
Nadeem Khan
A Faceless Evening And Other Stories by Gangadhar Gadgil Ratna Sagar, 2018, 208 pp., 299
June 2018, volume 42, No 6

Gangadhar Gadgil is eminently readable. If you have been a big time reader of all time great storytellers like Anton Chekov, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, or even Somerset Maugham or Arthur Conan Doyle, you would do well not to apply the same scale here. India too has had great story tellers like Rabindranath Tagore, Krishan Chander, Premchand, Sharat Chandra, Amrita Pritam, RK Narayan, Ruskin Bond and a whole galaxy of others. Marathi literature alone has produced internationally acclaimed greats like Kusumagraj, Pu La Deshpande, Vijay Tendulkar, Namdeo Dhasal, Bhau Padhye, Satish Alekar, Daya Pawar, and many more. If you decide that you are not going to get into odious comparisons, you will certainly enjoy this collection of Gadgil’s stories.

Gadgil has been a chronicler of Mumbai—through its denizens. Decades have gone by since he wrote, but any member of the milieu about which he writes will easily recognize a neighbour or a colleague or a close relative (or maybe himself/herself) in the characters that inhabit his stories. These stories masquerade as fiction, but there is virtually no doubt that they talk about real-life persons and real-life events, either individuals or composites. Gadgil’s writings talk about verities distilled out of a life full of decently sharp observation and delicate sensibilities. This distillation of universal verities connects Gadgil to the human condition across all the metropolises of the world. But those who have known Mumbai see its presence in virtually every page, even when the events are unfolding in other parts.

‘Thirst’, with which this collection of stories begins, is located in a railway compartment, yet Mumbai is visible through its jaded characters. An over-the-hill actress, screen name Pushpa, and Bhaisaheb, her manager/agent/paramour/exploiter have had more than their fill of each other. Sheer reluctance to exert themselves prevents them from breaking free from a relationship that has long begun to fester. There is an element of masochism in the manner both the unhappy characters keep plucking at their emotional scabs and wallow in the misery of martyrdom.

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